The tiny device is designed to be clipped to clothes or worn on a
necklace. As well as a five megapixel digital camera, it will
feature a GPS chip to keep track of owners' locations and
automatically log and organise pictures via a specially-created
iPhone and
Android
apps. Memoto claims the battery will last two days.

"Many fantastic and special moments become blurred together after
a while and it feels like life just rushes by, too fast for us to
grasp," said the Swedish start-up behind the project.

"We at Memoto wanted to find a way to relive more of our lives in
the future - and enjoy the present as it happens."

Memoto describes the project as "lifelogging" technology and
plans to ship its first finished cameras in February next year.

It is part of a trend dubbed the "Quantified Self Movement",
proponents of which aim to record as much data as possible about
their lives. They have adopted other products including the Nike+
FuelBand and Fitbit tracker, both of which keep tabs on wearers'
exercise patterns, as well as smartphone apps to track heart rate
other health data.

"The camera and the app work together to give you pictures of
every single moment of your life, complete with information on
when you took it and where you were," said Memoto. "This means
that you can revisit any moment of your past."

The apps the firm is developing are designed to help deal with
the glut of images the capture will take by helping organise them
and pick out interesting moments.

"The way this works is that the photos are organized into groups
of "moments" on a timeline," said Memote.

"On the timeline, you're presented with keyframes (about 30 per
day) each representing one moment. You can tap a moment to relive
it in a stop-motion like video of all the pictures in that
moment."

"This enables you to not only browse your life the way you
remember it, but to search for specific events of your life: who
was it that you met at that party or what did the sunset looked
like in Lapland in June?"

Critics of the Quantified Self Movement argue that, as well as
being narcissistic, it makes people live for technology rather
than use technology to help them live. The German writer Juli Zeh
reportedly described it as "self-empowerment by
self-enslavement".

Others have also raised concerns about privacy, but Memoto said
its product would have strict controls and encouraged owners to
exerciee restraint.

"If someone asks you not to use your Memoto camera - then please
don’t," it said.

"If someone doesn’t explicitly ask you, but you have reason to
believe that the place or the context is inappropriate for
photographing - then please don’t."